Guess BigTV got a nice answer of spoofing Airtel’s teaser by this new ad of Airtel Digital TV. Well, if I have to describe this ad in one word, I will say it’s BIG, it gives the impression of being big, being colossal. What an irony, isn’t it? BigTV kept on insisting “Ho toh BIG ho” through different creatives and through different properties…but the imagery of being big got very subtly and beautifully established by Airtel with just one television commercial featuring 10 popular celebrities! And the interesting noticeable point was that the celebrities are not used as endorsers rather they are shown as representative of different properties of the product. After a long time I think celebrities have been utilized in a very interesting and different way, else most of the ads these days just take celebrities for the sake of featuring celebrities and there are quite some examples of multi-starrer ads where not even one celebrity was required. But in this ad, the celebrities totally fit in the concept and the message gets communicated clearly. If I’m not wrong this is the first Indian ad featuring 10 popular celebrities.
The ad features a normal guy Rahul who is being welcomed as soon as he is out of Airport with “Welcome Rahul” board, it shows some Kathakalli dancers, then Sudha Chandran in her “K” serial avatar, comedy icon Raju Srivastava, youth icon VJ Ranvir, some cartoon characters, movie celebrities like Vidya Balan & Madhavan, sports stars – Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir, then sizzling Kareena Kapoor opening door for him at his home, A.R.Rahman on piano and finally Saif Ali Khan waiting in his living room, all these characters having only message “Welcome Rahul”, come home to the magic. Wonderful execution! All these celebrities representing different genres and varied categories give a well-structured impression of WHOLESEOME ENTERTAINMENT & COMPLETE FUN. Here is the youtube link for those who have not seen the ad till now:
[youtube=http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xd5qQgIrLo]
Overall, I liked the central theme as well as the execution style of the ad. And guess the whole effort of picking up Red Sofa by BigTV resulted nothing as in its main advertising, Airtel has not used that Sofa at all . Good work by JWT! Now lets see if next ad from BigTV is a spoof on “Welcome Rahul” :O
BTW just an afterthought – I’m wondering why these two new DTH players are competing against only each other (atleast in advertisements) and not with the already established players like Tata Sky and DishTV?
Peri
Digital TV, availability, what digital TV, which digital TV, digital tv deals, digital tv in my area Unleash epic Force powers and devastating combos. Comedy Television
Abhishek
I was waiting for your post on this Kanupriya!!
You raised the most important point very late. Is doing guerilla to a new comer a sane strategy? And the tremendous bad publicity that Big TV generated for themselves, was it worth it? Rather than taking on big daddys, Dish TV and Tata Sky they were fiddling with Airtel!
And one more thing, have u noticed that quality of ads has progressed with entrants. Dish TV could never make a good ad, Tata Sky had a slogan that I understood after a dozen times of watching, Big were better and Airtel has raised the bar very high!
Iya
I don’t think Airtel is competing with only Big TV. It’s the other way round and what Big has done is more tactical in nature. They just jumped on the opportunity. The “red sofa act” was certainly not thought out one.
Coming to Airtel –The concept is loud and clear. With 10 celebrities they couldn’t have gone wrong in telling us that they are the one who will provide the 360 degree entertainment. So I agree with you on the execution part.
But contrary to what you said, I didn’t find this TVC subtle. Rather it was a very “on your face” kinda commercial wherein they have sent out the message not only to the users but to the existing players as well about their intentions. No doubt it has been executed with a lot of class and panache.
Kanupriya
@ Abhishek: Totally agree. It was just a tactical strategy from BigTV. Wish they could have thought more on it, maybe they could have come out with something orginial!
@ Iya: To each its own, so our opinions need not be necessarily same as mine :-). My statement about competing against each other is with reference to their recent advertisement and press release war. Now coming to the usage of the word “subtle”, I think you’ve totally misunderstood the context. What I have mentioned was BigTV kept on shouting Ho toh BIG ho, but Airtel without mentioning the word Big on the face or without shouting loudly like “X number of channels”, “Y quality of picture and sound” or “Z number of cinema halls” still managed to establish the image of being BIG and being GRAND! Atleast as a consumer they managed to do it in my mind for sure.
Iya
I spoke about Big TV’s ad being tactical and not thought out too well…
and if i am not mistaken then subtle means understated and restrained… Airtel ad is not on your face with numbers and figures but the act of getting all these big celebraties clearly sends the meassage about being massive. Thats what i felt when i saw this ad and thats what i meant when i wrote the comment.
tanvi
as always a very well executed blog kanu..i usually dont see ads but just a day back i came across this one n was taken aback by the no. of celebrities airtel had footed..seemed like the om shanti om track with some 30 celebrities..a “v eye catchin strategy” for consumers like me who dont care about ads with a baby in my lap :)i think airtel is now one up on its competitors as far as the ad is concerned
Kanupriya
@ Tanvi: Thanks and what a true comparison! Now that you’ve mentioned, yes it does remind me of “Om Shanti Om” song.
@ Iya: As I said “To each its own” and BTW “subtly” also means “delicately” and “ingeniously”! And your last sentence of this comment is exactly what I’ve been saying in my post as well as last comment
Iya
lol.. so kanu we have been basically being saying the same thing in 2 different ways…yes surely “to each its own”.. thats the fun of English language… see how both of us interpreted the word subtly…anyways…
Ratheesh
Hi, Reliance people can not do anything else apart from cheating and copying others. I agree Airtel ad is very good and communicates in a very interesting way that they are BIG!
Abhinav
Hey Good one.
Even i liked the Airtel ad alot. Airtel’s ad are pleasing and have a ‘Feel-Good’ factor to it where all BIG TV/Adda/Fm ads seem to make a mockery of others and copy stuff from everything under the sun.Well, two completely different schools of thought. I think most of them prefer former, but it’s a cruel world and the latter one’s win at times.
Keep writing more ad reviews. You seem to have a good perspective of things.
Kanupriya
@ Ratheesh: Thanks for dropping by and yea Reliance is Reliance
@ Iya: Yea your last comment was something which I said in my post itself. But since you mentioned you think contrarily to what I said, hence I mentioned that you have misunderstood my context and see I was right – there was misunderstanding / confusion! Anyways thanks for dropping by and taking time to post comments and explanations.
Arun
Wow Kanu! First of all let me congratulate you for maintaining such a wonderful blog. I read this as well as your mixed expressions. Really really interesting! Loved each post of yours. I remember your initial days blogging passion and indiatimes blog of our Godrej days!
And now coming down to this post, very well said! Without shouting like BigTV and saying it on the face, they communicated their message beautifully.
Raman Guglani
can anyone tel me the lyrics of this add which runs in the back
? is it Hey rahul.. Welcome….